The Hole In The Ceiling - crlast86
by Natnarf01
Summary: Just for crlast86 from Reddit...I don't know how to publish over there...sorry!


"Another day at the papers...when will I graduate from this small table to the middle sized one?"

I was slouching on my desk moaning with boredom while holding a couple of office papers in my hands, running through everything that was laid on my desk to sort out and finish by the end of the week.

"Lemme see...essay...essay...letter...essay...power point...presentations...WHAM!"

I threw everything to the floor, angered to the bones in my fingertips. Clearly I was having the time of my life, doing a whole ton of endless writing, something which I shouldn't be doing as all. I graduated from a Fashion school, to become a famous and successful Gown Designer. I applied to this company to show off my skills to produce my work, to be worn on by Models and walk on a runway show.

But NO! I had to sit behind a desk, using my pens and pencils to do essays and presentations about organizing Wedding Gowns and other related gowns such as Flower girl gowns and the Bride's Maid's gown, when I should be drawing and designing down gown after gown on paper after paper. RIDICULOUS!

I tried to recollect myself and took in multiple deep breaths, in and out, in and out again. After a few moments I looked around in my office wheeled chair to see that the papers from my desk were scattered all over the floor. I quickly scrambled to the floor to pick up the papers one by one, hoping that my boss wouldn't come into my office anytime soon. I quickly rearranged all the papers into their proper groupings, stacking them neatly together. And in just that split second, my door opens and my boss comes into the room.

"Oh, Moriaen. I see you've received the papers." He says looking at my hands still holding the papers. "So, think you could finish them all in time? They've got to be done soon so that we could start rearranging with the couple's Wedding Organizer. I expect the first draft to be as good as if it was the final product. Understand?"

"Y-Yes, sir. I'll do my best and finish the first draft by the end of the day today." I said immediately on the spot. Deep inside, I just kept on cursing to myself, making a dangerous promise that I think wouldn't be possible to keep.

"Good. Very Good." He says with a smile. "Don't go making that promise now and disappoint me later. I don't do good with 'Promise Breakers', especially in the Fashion and Design Industry. See you later." He lets out a few laughs and leaves my office closing the door.

I felt all of my strength immediately leave my body as I slumped into my chair and it hits my back wall.

"Great. Me and my Big Mouth." I spoke my mind.

I've been working in the company for about 6 months now, and I've done about four of these kinds of writings, successfully. All of them followed the usual common themes: Chapel, Beach, Backyard, and Private. I just had to follow some of the previous records as references, mixing and matching which of the best designs suit for each of the requested themes. I'm not allowed to design new gowns if the clients requests for a customized design for each dresses, but to ask for the main Gown Designers in the department to sketch out some designs, even if it means making me hand in the drafts late.

Writing these essays and planning the presentation wasn't really the problem, but what to write into the papers was the biggest problem. These papers were from our current clients, who are planning to have their wedding in the middle of June next year, and they wanted everything to be new and creative: the designs of the gowns has to be original, yet simple with a few unique signatures; the theme should match their playful personalities as well as the June season weather; and the location, it can be anywhere, so as long as it doesn't feel like it's congested. How am I going to get all of these requests into one extraordinary plan done in just seven hours? If I don't make this, I might not be able to ask for a raise or a promotion. I've got no idea how will I pull this through, but all I know that all of my hard work isn't worth my current paycheck.

My chair was a little further away from my desk, I used my feet to walk my chair over and my eyes scans over the million of letters of all over the papers. Having no motivation, I give up on thinking for the moment and I looked up at my ceiling.

My office ceiling was one of those with lines and squares, mainly called a dropped ceiling, but some others like to call it a grid ceiling, false ceiling, or one of my favorites: the T-bar ceiling, I find it very amusing the way it's being called like that. It's one of those where you can just take out one of the tiles and replace it with some square lights or square air conditioners. If I was the boss, I'd put in a better ceiling where it'll make the room look more spacey, or homey feel. I'm not saying it's bad or something, but just above my head there's one missing tile. I told the boss about it, but he says that it's just fine the way it is, and that I should be glad that nothing's falling out of it. Well, I just hope that he isn't planning to hide a dead body up there and frame me for a crime with it, or anything associating with the ceiling.

Feeling all the more frustrated, my upper body slowly collapsed, or slumped, onto the papers as closed my eyes, not caring if I've crumpled any of the precious details. I might as well let time pass and work its way to the time I'll get fired.

Tock! Tock!

Something hit me on the back of my head and fell to the carpet floor. I moved back a few steps with my chair to check what it was. I tried to lean in to get a better look, but it was dark to see from under my table, so I moved it with my shoes to the back wall where I can see it better. But it was still too small to see what it actually was, so I picked it up with just two of my fingers: it was an acorn, but it was so small that it's about the size of my fingernail.

"Where on earth did an acorn like this come-"

Another one fell down onto my skirt just as I was talking, and I quickly looked up. A second later another acorn fell down from the hole in my ceiling. Was there a squirrel up there? Was it stashing its food for the coming winter up in my ceiling? How did the squirrel even go up there in the first place?

I was starting to get curious and was about to go and grab a step ladder that was stashed in my office's storage closet, but then another thought came to my mind. What if wasn't a squirrel up there, but a person? Maybe a homeless person found his way in here and decided to hide up there for shelter? Or maybe there was a murderer up there, eating acorns to pass the time and find a good opportunity to start a serial murder in the company? Or it could be the company's enemy assassin trying to pry in for information about our secret in our successes? Or what if, a dead body was up there, and one of his pockets was full of acorn that a critter started nibbling away at his pockets and made a hole a little too big that some of the acorns were rolling off down to me?

I was starting to go all paranoid, watching as more tiny acorns fall down onto the carpet. I went out of my office to look for anyone, hoping someone could help me check what was hiding up in my ceiling. To my surprise, everyone was gone, all of the desks were as they were, filled with papers and folders, drawings and sketches, phones and computers, and their bags were still there. I even went as far as the boss's office, but he was also out, as well as his secretary who had a desk stationed just outside the boss's office. I looked at the clock conveniently sitting on the secretary's desk, and it was 10 minutes passed 12.

"I've been left behind for lunch. What ungrateful coworkers I've got in this office." I said out loud, without a care in the world.

I can't get any security guards to come up here and check the ceiling, only the secretary can do so. The limitations one has as an employee. I decided not to wait for the others to come back and went back to my office. I locked up my door from the inside with my one of a kind office key and went to my storage closet to get out the step ladder. I know locking up the door is a pretty dangerous move, but at least it'll stall time for me to come back down to catch the mysterious creature hiding up in my ceiling if it ever ran down here into my office. I'm the only one who owns the key to my office, and the door is hard to knock down even with the strength of 5 security guards. So either way, they can't escape, alive or innocent.

I moved my chair a little ways away from the desk, placed the step ladder, which has an 'A' shape structure and is about as tall as my waist when opened up, just under the missing tile. I took off my heels and left them by the side of the step ladder. I wouldn't want to trip on my first step up a small ladder.

"Hooh." I let out a big, deep breathe. "Here goes nothing."

With my stockings just separating the feel from my feet and the cold metal steps, I carefully climbed up the ladder while my hand was against the back wall for balance and support. My head had made it through the hole just as I was three steps away from the top of the ladder, and almost the whole of my upper body was through the hole by the time I was on the last step. Luckily for me, I was light in weight, so I was able to get the rest of my body up onto the flooring of the ceiling. Oddly enough, when I finally got my senses to check my surroundings, all I saw was darkness, only the square hole was emitting my only light source. I stood up straight and started wandering about, hoping that maybe something would appear or show up.

Some time had passed and nothing seemed to be happening: no acorns, no bodies, nothing but eternal darkness. I kept on thinking on what I might find while I was walking around. Would I find someone here walking around in one of our stolen dresses? Would the squirrel just happen to find some warm fabric scraps and used it to make a nest for himself and his acorns? Maybe they've been here for quire some time now and I just haven't noticed the missing scraps that I've forgotten to sort and put away. Oops! Can't let my boss find out about that slip up.

I decided on giving up and tried to look for the square hole with light, but I couldn't find it. Not that I couldn't see, it's just as if the hole had disappeared, vanished. Weirdly enough I could still see my whole body, as if my body was illuminating some sort of soft, but warm light.

Just as I was thinking about how my body was doing such a thing, an acorn fell from out of nowhere and landed just in front of my toes. I didn't see anything that could've dropped this down in front or above me. I picked it up and took a good look at it. It looked exactly like the one that had fell into my office, in shape and size, as well as the color. This acorn addict must really like their acorns to all look identical. This something shiny and sparkly was showering just over the acorn. I looked up a bit and was astonished by what was in front of my eyes: a Fairy, a miniature version of a human girl wearing a dress from what seemed to look like the leaves of a plant and using a plant climber as a dress belt, along with two small see-through wings attached to its back, unless I had mistaken it to be a Sprite instead.

"What...are you?" I tried to asked curiously.

But it only made twinkling sounds as a response.

"Um...Are you a fairy or a sprite?" I asked.

But it only twinkled again.

"Oh...so you can't speak. Let's see...twinkle once for 'Sprite', and twice for 'Fairy'."

And it twinkled twice.

Almost too excited, I tried to touch the dress, and edges of the dress slowly curled up, as if there were the leaves of the shy plant. Her dress had now looked like a newly blossom flower hanging upside down.

"Is your dress always like this? "

It twinkled in a randomized rhythm.

"Oh, forgot. Is your dress really like this, made of leaves? Twinkle once for 'No', twice for 'Yes'."

She twinkled twice.

I had forgotten about the acorn in my hand until my fingers felt its smooth surface.

"I wanna ask, is this yours?" I asked as I showed her the acorn.

She twinkled once.

"So it's not yours. Do you know where this is from? Some of them have been falling into my office."

I could see her nodded her tiny head very cheerfully and started flying towards the darkness. With no other leads to go on I decided to follow the fairy. We walked for a little bit, and as if by magic, small plants started appearing on the ground, a few steps later grass started sprouting after each time my foot moves forward; flowers of different colors and shades started growing and blossoming in the grass; Shrubs and bushes started forming; stubs and small tress start to appear and grow every other five to ten steps; climbers just afoot of the small trees grow up towards the small branches; small cocoons quickly forming on branches and little butterflies immediately hatching and flying everywhere; some white fluffy rabbits appear and hops across from one side to the other; and the sounds of birds chirping fills in the silence.

I took a moment to appreciate these things as I stopped walking and closed my eyes to let these sounds and smells fill my nose and ears, which then forms a small image of a small garden in my mind, making me feel that I was in somewhere enchanted. I opened my eyes again, remembered that this place didn't have any sunshine or sunlight, even though everything else was real, it still wasn't it. Something was amiss. This place was in my office ceiling, from where I climbed into from a hole, and that I was finding the source of the acorns. I only just realized that none of the trees I saw had any acorns growing at all.

"Squeak!"

I turned my head around to see a lone small brown squirrel, sitting in the middle of the grass field, looking at me. I also looked back, waiting to see if it'll do anything. A few moments passed, but nothing happened. Then I took out one of the acorns in my pocket and knelt down and showed it to the squirrel. Sure enough, it scurried over to my hand, took the acorn and started sniffing. I love how these mouse like creatures move and twitch their noses, even their whiskers follow along. I don't really like calling them rodents 'cause the word sounds like as if all of the animals were bad, infectious, disgusting creatures.

It looks back to me again, then it scurries away a few paces away. It keeps looking back at me every time it stops and goes, so I assumed that it wanted me to follow along. I jogged along, not minding if the grass would tear, rip, or make a run along my stockings, until the squirrel stopped running that I slowed down. There was an arch wrapped and decorated with vines and flowers, as if was a door of some sort. You could tell that it wasn't decorated on purpose, as you could see that the vines were growing all over it from the ground, even the flowers and leaves grew from the vines themselves. This would be wonderful in any garden, whether just for decor or special occasions.

Just afoot of it was the squirrel staying in the middle, not moving or anything, as its eyes was fixated on something up ahead not moving a single step as if it was a small figurine. I followed his gaze to see what's up ahead, and to my surprise it was a wall full of vines. Precisely, it was a curtain of vines and climbers of different thickness and length. I swear it wasn't there a few moments ago, but then again I wouldn't have been able to see it since it's dark around here. Feeling amazed with it, I tried to run my fingers in the curtain, and some sort of shimmer or glitter started sparkling. I really loved this, I ought to put up one or two of these back in my place. Of course I gotta use fake one since I don't want to attract any insects or pests in my home, plus it'll lighten up my room just a bit.

As soon as I parted the curtain the squirrel scurried through like a mouse. I didn't bother trying to chase after it since it'll just wait for me anyway, so I prepared myself to absorb what other exotic decorations or abstracts I'll see. I stepped through the curtain and a small landscaped room appears right before my eyes. There was no longer any blackness, but filled with white light, and it wasn't strong in brightness either. The walls were filled with stones and climbers, the floor filled with grass and dirt, there wasn't a ceiling but it feels right to not have one at all, to my right in the far corner is a small pond full of blossomed Lily-pads with a small waterfall coming down from the ceiling-less sky, to my left was a small stone cave or tunnel of some sort, and just in front of me was a long white carpet that reached to the end of the room. It looked like some sort of lace, but I'm pretty sure that it should be a nature element base on what I've seen so far. I knelt down to get a feel of it, and when I got close enough I almost screamed and landed on my butt. On the edges of the white carpet were many white fat worms as well as black spiders with rear ends as big as a Ping Pong ball. These must be Silkworms and Black Widows. I really scared myself. But how were they doing it got me more curious.

I got myself together and slowly knelt down close enough to keep my distance away from them. The worms and the spiders were working as if they were running on fast forward or something. The Silkworms face the grass and ate leaves until they could shed enough to make cocoons, but these cocoons were like tunnels and no signs showing that they were going to end the shell anytime soon. On the other end of the cocoons were the spiders, amazingly pulling the cocoons and making threads out of it and formed web-like lace with the other spiders and silk. This was something beyond my imagination. I wonder if this was even possible in real life? Nah. The spiders would've eaten all of the worms from the very start. Still, this is one beautiful piece of art made by these insects themselves.

I stood up and saw the squirrel on the other end of the white silk carpet. I went to the side of the carpet and walked over to the squirrel. As I got closer, I saw that the carpet was starting to tilt upwards. I followed it, until it was just at my head. It took me a moment to realize that it wasn't a carpet, but a veil. I looked down to see even more worms and spiders, and they were working over a large white gown. It was the most amazing wedding gown I've ever seen if you'd ask me. Not even the best designers have gone up to this level of beauty and precision. One wrong move or touch and this dress would break or collapse. It was lace like all over, from the neck, to the sleeves, to the corset, and the long skirt. The back was open until the waist, meant to be bare. I'm not sure if it's the silk or the handiwork of the spiders, but the lace were shimmering and glittering no matter where you look or what angle you're looking from, almost like it was a dress from that Cinderella story. This is truly wonderful. A true work of art. Too bad I don't have my camera to take a shot of this marvelous craftsmanship, even if it's made by insects.

Tick-Tick-Tick! Tick-Tick-Tick!

I turned my head to those small ticking noises, and see that it was the squirrel using its acorn to knock on the small stone cave.

Tick-Tick-Tick! Tick-Tick-Tick!

It hit the cave a few more times till I saw a small brown thing put down on the grass as it comes into view from the cave. I took a few steps away from the dress and the cave, in case anything bad happens to me after that thing come out from the cave. Slowly I see another thing following the first one, then a bigger one, and another one, until the whole thing came out standing on all fours. It wasn't over as it started to move to stand on its feet. I covered my mouth not let out any screams, cause I wouldn't want it coming over to me, whatever it is.

"Hee hee." a girl's laughter broke the tension in me.

I looked to my left to see a little girl, wearing a black pirate hat on her golden hair and a white sundress. She didn't have any facial features, almost like she was a silhouette or a spirit, but then I noticed her upper right arm had some stitches around it. Did she get hurt at some point? That's a lot of stitches for such a young girl, even if it is a spirit.

She started dancing around me in a couple of circles and stopped in front of me. She gently pulled my left arm and held my hand. She then points to the unknown figure by the cave. It finally stood on its feet, and I was surprised to see that it was a small boy wearing a bear costume that had a bear body and a bear hoodie, and he was holding a pillow while yawning, probably just had a nap. The little girl let go of my hand and went over to the squirrel. She took the acorn from it and ran back to me, holding my hand again and placed the acorn in my palm. She looked up at me and smiled.

It was then that everything started going fuzzy.

"Moriaen..."

I could hear someone calling out to me, faintly.

"Moriaen..."

It's now getting louder.

"Moriaen..."

The light started getting brighter and I shut my eyes tightly

"Moriaen!"

I shot open my eyes, unconsciously raised my heavy head and right in front of me is a familiar face looking at me.

"J..Jess...Jesselle?.." I murmured.

"Thank God you're awake." She said. "I was worried that you're also coming down with a fever."

Jesselle is an assistant of one of the company's Designers, and her Designer Boss is supposed to be in charge of designing the gowns that will come with my current essay, once my presentation is approved or so.

"Also?" I asked. "What do you mean?"

"My Boss had caught the flu from someone who was really sick in the department, and so he wouldn't be able to work on the designs with you."

"Oh. Er. Is there anyone else who can replace him?"

"No. That's why I'm here. I've come to tell you that everyone else is busy with their own projects or sick from work. I'm afraid I can't help you with the designs either since I'm only an assistant. You're lucky to even be in that chair, at least you can suggest or choose details on the designs." She shrugs.

Jesselle's also a Designer graduate like me, aiming to be a Seasonal Gown Designer, and she also started her work here in the company behind a desk, only to upgrade to being a Designer's assistant a year after. She was right about me being able to choose between designs, but it still doesn't satisfy my inner soul of designing.

"Oh my. What am I going to do?" I said while holding my head with both my hands.

Then I felt her hand on my shoulder, comforting me.

"I'd just continue with the essay and presentation if I were you, at least the big Boss would know that you're a hard worker. Maybe then he might recognize all of your hard efforts. Now I gotta go back and fix up all of his schedules today to a later date. Hays." She exhales tiredly and leaves my office.

I stood up and went over to close my door. I leaned my back against the door, slapped my right hand on my forehead.

"It was all a dream. And to think that I've...huh?"

I raised left hand and opened it up to see in my palm a small acorn, the very one that the little gave me in my dreams. I went over to my desk to see another acorn on my essay papers. I looked up at my ceiling and see it's still missing a tile. I quickly grabbed my step ladder from the storage closet, moved my aside and quickly climbed up to see if everything I saw was still there. When I finally reached the top of my step ladder, the excitement that was on my face had instantly vanished. I saw only cables, lots and lots of cables fasten to the corners in groups, and a couple of old spiderwebs were hanging here and there carrying the dust that has been collected for quite awhile. I climbed down and placed my step ladder against the wall, pulling my chair over to the table and slumped in it.

I looked over at my pile of papers, picked up the two acorns and fiddled with them a little bit. My eyes then shifted over to the papers again, and in that moment images of the dream played in my head: the vines and leaves, the stubs and bushes, the trees and flowers, the rabbits and butterflies, that funny squirrel, the arch, the Silkworms and Black Widows, the little boy, and the little girl, and finally the beautiful white lace gown, pausing in on it the longest time in my mind. And in just a blink of an eye, everything disappears. I continued to stare blankly, trying to grasp everything that has, or has not happened, and let out a deep breath.

"Could it be..." I said to myself.

I took one good look at the acorns in my hand. Then I took up my pen on my desk with one hand, the other trying to feel its way to turn on the switch of my computer.

"This better work." I said as I started scribbling on my paper.

"Well? What do you both think?" My boss asks the couple who were holding my papers.

We were in the meeting room where we get together with our clients and discuss the proposal for the final results. The room wasn't that big, there was a small circled brown coffee table, and five individual white sofa chairs that formed around the table like a flower's petals. I was sitting in between the bride and my Boss, the groom was beside the bride of course. I was clenching both my fists really tight as I study the faces of my clients. They finally lowered down the papers and spread them all over the table.

"I really love it. I love everything that was put into these papers. The idea of having a nature theme is brilliant since we both love the outdoors and the idea of having mythical creatures into this is really amazing." The bride said.

"I personally liked the ideas of animals in here, the idea of having the Black Widows weaving laces using the Silkworms' cocoons to make the dresses and the bridal gown for all of the women, shows that even the tiniest of animals have their purposes for being in this world. And the bear, that's an adorable touch. A boy bear cub holding a squirrel pillow that carries the rings, now that's original." The groom says feeling impressed.

"You should be proud of yourself, Moriaen. I haven't seen any of our clients as impressed nor as happy with a proposal in full." My Boss compliments me.

"Thank you very much." I said as I stood up and gave a sincere bow with my arms at my sides.

"But I do want to know something, particularly about the Flower Girl." The lady client pointed to one of the papers with the Flower Girl's sketches. "Why does she have a pirate's hat? All of the others have wings, only she has this hat. Explain why has the Designer done this."

I sat back down and smiled to her.

"Flower Girls are usually the bride's favored little girl, such as being the favorite niece, neighbor, even one of their own daughters. I was going to suggest that we'd just let her have a pair of Fairy's wing with a basket of flower petals, but something on your personal information caught my eyes. You're an outdoor kind of person, but all of the written hobbies differ from who you are, yet you wrote here on the 'Dream' section that you want to 'Be able to learn Fencing'. I thought it was odd that you would write that down, even though you can always just start taking it up anytime. I then saw your medical history written on the paper again, and there you wrote 'Artificial arm.'" I paused for a second. "May I ask, if this is true, that your artificial arm is from your upper right arm going down?"

Her eyes had widen, almost to the point that her eyes would pop out.

"Why...YES! That's true!" She says as she uses her left arm to roll up her other arm's sleeve. "I lost my arm when I was just six years old. I can't do any sports that involves rigorous arm movement " She pointed to the line on her arm where you could see her real human skin on one side, the artificial skin on the other. "How did you know of this?" She asked as she rolls down her sleeve.

"It was just an intuition. Anyways, the point of this is that, the reason the Flower Girl's wearing a pirate hat, along with a belt and a sword around her waist, is to express the bride's inner ego, inner soul, inner dream, and that's why the Flower Girl's different. It also symbolizes that you were once a small and wild little girl, but you've grown to be a beautiful young woman with big dreams for the future. These were some of the reasons behind the pirate's hat."

"That's...that was truly...how should I say this..." She tried to look for the right words, and at the same time her eyes were tearing up. "...It was..._beautiful_. It was nice of you to simplify everything of who I wanted to be, into just a small little girl who is normally just called a Flower Girl, to be something even more significant and special, especially to me. Thank you very much."

"You're welcome." I said as I took out my small pocket tissues and gave it to her. "You really deserve to have your dreams come true, even if it's just for a moment in your life."

"The Designer's really thought this through and carefully to be able to cooperate with you. May I know who the Designer is?" the man asked me.

"You're looking at her." I said.

"Really?" He sounded stunned.

"Yes. I designed this and all of the dresses, even the Bride's gown. During the time when I was preparing the essay and the presentations, the Designer who was supposed to work with me had fallen ill and had to be absent. There was no one else to replace him and I was short on time to find anyone else. So I decided to design your dresses, even if it's not a part of my job. I do understand if you would like to ask someone else to-"

"No need to change." The woman spoke up. "As I've said earlier, I really love everything that has been shown to me, and I don't plan on changing any of the details that has been carefully thought of, especially when all of the work was done by only by someone as excellent as you. I don't plan on changing anything at all." She said wholeheartedly. "I do hope you'll get to design more gowns and dresses as beautiful and magnificent as these."

"I hope so too."

Those words were all I could say. I only work behind a desk, so it'll take some time before I could become a Designer of this company, if I still survived working here.

We wrapped up our meeting and escorted our clients out of our building after riding down the elevator. If anything, this to me was by far the best project ever given to me. I wished that all of my future clients would by happy with my work just like those two. We walked into the elevator just as it arrived, and watched as the doors closed. I shoved my hands into one of my pockets in my suit jacket, and felt the smooth shells of the two acorns against my fingertips. I took them out and stared at them, and I can feel my mouth unconsciously smiled.

"Do you still wanna keep your ceiling opened?" My Boss suddenly spoke up.

"...Boss?" I stared at him with questionable eyes.

"Hm, let's see...Maybe I'll let you do two more projects and then we might promote you to becoming a Designer of our company."

"...Boss?!" I was surprised.

"Hahaha. So as long as you give more than your best in the next two projects, right?"

He laughs just as we arrived on our office floor and I watch him walk out of the elevator.

"I wonder if..." I said.

I pondered about what he said about the hole in my ceiling, but just shook it out of my head as I leave the elevator and headed towards my office.


End file.
